The Three guards tore off their blindfolds, their eyes glowing with activated skills—wind, forest, and light.
The fourth one stayed behind the cart, gripping the reins, watching us as we clashed.
We dashed forward, our feet tearing through the dirt. The wind-type reacted instantly.
His irises tightened like storm clouds spiraling inward. The air around him shivered, drawn toward the vortex forming in his gaze. A low howl rose as the wind obeyed, twisting into a newborn tornado at his command.
He launched three vortex at us consecutively. I swung my blade across, slicing through the tornadoes one after another. My blade remained sharp with fuel of electricity sparking into the air.
Cody, on the other hand, was already moving—blurring forward with that reckless confidence. He leapt straight into the swirling wall of wind, twisting mid-air. His heel ignited with a sharp crack of energy.
—WHAM
The kick connected with the tornado's core. The entire vortex shuddered, rippling like a wounded animal before bursting apart into a cloud of grey smoke.
Cody landed in a crouch. Before he had the time to get back up, two more came his way. I dashed toward Cody's direction. I forced my feet into the ground, pushing through the pressure and swung.
My blade sliced through the vortex's core. A shockwave pulsed outward.
"Cody, watch out from your right."
He raised, clapping the dust off his hands. He spun, planting his foot, and launched a rapid-fire barrage of kicks—each strike sending a ripple through the air. The tornadoes staggered, wobbling like a spinning top losing balance.
I kept mine sharp, striking each with thunder.
The tornadoes unraveled instantly from behind us, exploding into a burst of dust that washed over us like a wave of cold fog.
I sprinted through the haze in Cody's direction as he took the last vortex down.
I brought my sword down in a clean arc.
The final vortex shattered.
And for a moment, everything went silent.
Then the smoke from all dissipated tornadoes drifted together, swirling around us. Thick. Heavy. It wrapped around my leg, clinching to my clothes, and my sword.
Within seconds, I could no longer see Cody. Nor the officers. Nothing at all.
Swirling gray, closing in.
My instincts remained sharp.
The fog pressed in so thick, curling against my body. It was getting hard and harder to move around. I couldn't see more than a few feet ahead, but I knew something was wrong.
— Cody?
I tightened my grip on my sword, its weight felt greater than before. I began scanning left, then right.
[. . . ]
Nothing but grey. My pulse thudded in my ears. I took another step, slow, careful—
Just inches from my boots, the ground jolted. Just inches from me, the soil split open.
A stalk shot upward, fast as a spear. my eyes widened, and I twisted aside, dirt spraying across my legs as the 'thing' ripped past me.
I spun with force, my eyes tracking it. The stem stretched higher, higher, its petals snapping open in a violent bloom.
It resembled a flower, a sunflower or a calendula, or a jasmine or—daffodil. Matter of fact, it was unclear, the plant was deformed as if the user who casted it was a beginner.
Its mouth peeled wide, jagged edges like teeth hidden in the petals.
Then it roared. The sound wasn't a sound at all—it was wind, tearing through the fog, rattling my bones. The blast forced me back a step, I shielded myself with my arm as spikes flew loose from its mouth. Slicing down through the mist. I raised my sword, the spikes clanged against the blade, one grazing my shoulder as the rest skittered off the ground.
I steadied my stance, but the fog clinging to me made it hard to move around—even my blade felt ten times heavier. My heat hammered.
I forced it up once, but the strain was too much.
[ this won't work ]
I shoved the blade back into my bag. It was pretty much useless if it slowed me down.
Lightning sparked at my fingertips, crawling across my skin in jagged cracks. The current surged higher, racing up my arm, biting into my shoulder. My veins burned with energy. I closed my eyes, then snapped them open—blue light flared—cutting through the fog.
The ground bent. My body vanished.
I reappeared at the flower's throat, driving my strike into the stem where bloom met body. Electricity exploded outward, searing through its flesh.
The monster roared, petals peeling wide like maw, wind blasting against me. Leaves lashed out, snapping like whips, trying to catch me.
[ I was still too slow. ]
I dashed left, then right, zigzagging through the fog. My movements blurred, each step trailing sparks. The flower's strikes missed by inches as I carved into its body with my hand again and again.
Up, down, forward, back. My lightning cut through stem and leaf, shredding its defenses to zero.
The roar broke into a guttural scream, the entire bloom convulsing as my final strike tore through its core. Sparks erupted, the fog itself trembling under force.
I landed, breath sharp, electricity still crawling across my shoulder. The flower staggered, its monstrous body collapsing inward.
The ground swallowed it whole. As my eyes shut, the exhaustion I'd been holding back surged forward. My heartbeat hammered in my ears as I dropped to the ground.
The fog finally thinning around me. My vision cleared just enough to catch Cody locked in combat with the last officer.
The officer lunged back, his weapon twisting mid-motion—steel bending, reshaping into a bow. The string snapped taut, an arrow of pure force forming in his grip.
Cody's glasses flared, lenses glowing with sharp light. He dropped low, the arrow slicing past his head, shattering the trees behind him. Blood was streaking down his leg, but he didn't slow down.
He surged forward, closing the distance in a blur. The officer swung, bow melting back into a blade, slashing down. Cody twisted, his wounded leg dragging but his upper body snapping sideways, the strike missing by inches.
With a burst of speed, Cody slammed his palm against the officer's weapon, forcing it wide. His other hand shot forward, knuckles red, and he drove a punch into the guard's chest.
The officer staggered by little, weapon shifting again—blade to spear, spear to whip—snapping toward Cody's throat. He ducked, sparks of light flashing off his glasses, then spun low, sweeping his leg across the ground. The whip missed, as Cody rose with a sharp uppercut.
The blow landed hard, the officer's head snapping back.
"LOOK! ERECK IS HERE WITH THE QUEEN!", the officer who was holding the horses shouted, interrupting the fight between Cody and the last officer.
As the defeated two officers rose from the dirt, I pushed myself up fast. The officer behind us pointed sharply. "there they are!" I followed his gesture, turning to see as horses burst into sight, pulling a cart at full speed.
I turned toward Cody. "The queen is inside that cart. I saw her myself…"
Cody didn't move, his mouth hung open.
[This makes no sense… I saw the queen—I saw Mei inside the cage. Don't tell me it was a spell.]
[I could swear there was only one cart escorting the queen to the camp. Why would they create a fake illusion… unless—]
Before I could think further. The cart rolled to a stop in front of us.
It matched the exact formation: one officer in front guiding the horses, two flanking the right and on the left sides, six trailing behind ,and five crouched in the branches above.
Except one thing was odd.
The man guiding the horses wore a white mask. He looked nothing like the
[Have I ever met someone like him before?]
[A commander of
My mind went blank. Cody limped toward me and grabbed me by my collar.
"Are you kidding me? Did you do this on purpose? Hey! Answer me!" I shook my head, prying his hands off me.
— They used an illusion, this was a set up to confuse any attackers. And they fooled us, they saw right through us.
This wasn't the same as in the original timeline. No, this was a completely different route Cody and I had taken.
Even Cody, in the original timeline, never attacked like this. He, like the others, headed straight for the camp to rescue Her Majesty.
No one tried—not even Raily.
And back then, the cart transporting the queen was only a single, assigned cart.
Unless someone knew I would strike.